Barry Zito

Even with Zack Greinke and Anibal Sanchez still up for grabs, the National League already seems set to sport some excellent rotations in 2013. How about this for the top four: Nationals: Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann, Dan Haren, Ross Detwiler Giants: Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum, Ryan Vogelsong, Barry Zito Phillies: Roy…

Barry Zito and Sergio Romo were on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno last night, where fellow guest Jamie Lee Curtis hung out during their interview while wearing a Romo beard. Here’s video of their appearance, broken down into two parts:

I’m gonna be sick to death of this stuff by January, but man, I forgot how much I loved the scuttlebutt, rumors, slanders, lies, hyperbole and general silliness of the hot stove season. And it hasn’t truly begun until you start hearing things about Scott Boras clients, be it stuff from Boras himself or from…

I prefer to think of this as an autopsy and not a eulogy, because an autopsy deals specifically with the cause of death. A eulogy, in contrast, takes in the deceased’s whole life and tries to draw some lessons from it. I don’t think anyone can draw any intelligent conclusions about the Tigers’ entire 2012…

Brian Sabean’s fondness for over-the-hill hitters has made him the butt of more than a few jokes during his 16-year run as the Giants’ general manager. What is undeniable, though, is that the man knows something about pitching, particularly young pitching. Four of the five starters the Giants used this year and in the postseason…

The Giants will go with their 22-year-old backup catcher as their designated hitter in Game 3 of the World Series in Detroit on Saturday. Hector Sanchez is getting the call for the third time in the postseason. Aubrey Huff was the most likely alternative in the spot. Both of Sanchez’s previous assignments this month came…

The Giants weren’t as much of a surprise the Nationals, so it’s doubtful Bruce Bochy will get much love in the Manager of the Year award balloting when the results are announced next month. Now if there were a Postseason Manager of the Year award, there’s no doubt Bochy would claim it in a landslide.…

Madison Bumgarner was bumped from the Giants’ rotation in the NLCS after back-to-back poor playoff starts in which he failed to make it out of the fifth inning, but manager Bruce Bochy is putting his faith in the 23-year-old left-hander tonight. Bochy chose Bumgarner to make the Game 2 start rather than Tim Lincecum, who…

Pablo Sandoval went 4-for-4 with three home runs and Barry Zito yielded just one earned run in 5 2/3 innings as the Giants rocked and rolled to an 8-3 victory over the Tigers in Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday evening in San Francisco. Sandoval smashed a solo shot to right-center field in…

Babe Ruth. Reggie Jackson. Albert Pujols. Those were the only players to homer three times in a World Series game before Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval joined the club with a solo blast to right-center field in the bottom of the fifth inning of this Game 1. Sandoval sent a shot to the very same…

Justin Verlander had been a force throughout this 2012 postseason. But now he is getting hammered. Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro, the MVP of the NLCS against the Cardinals, drove in Angel Pagan with a single up the middle in the bottom of the first inning, then Pablo Sandoval launched his second home run of…

AT&T Park is in a state of “Panda-monium.” Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval — who is affectionately nicknamed “Kung Fu Panda” — hit a Justin Verlander pitch into the right-center field seats in the bottom of the first inning of this World Series opener, giving San Francisco a 1-0 lead. Giants left-hander Barry Zito looked a…

Less than half of the Giants’ current roster remains from the team that won the World Series in 2010. There are only 11 holdovers, or 12 if you include Game 1 starter Barry Zito despite his not being on the actual playoff roster in 2010. Carl Steward of the San Jose Mercury News has the…

We’ve talked a lot about narrative lately, but that’s all pregame to the crowning jewel of narrative season: the World Series. The big narrative: that whoever wins four out of seven games is and always was special and uniquely destined for this. There will be lots of post-facto story-telling after each victory and especially after…

SAN FRANCISCO — Because of personal weekend travel on top of World Series travel, I wake up this morning in the third different time zone in the space of four days. I’ve wrestled American Airlines to something close to a draw — they may not have given me what I wanted for all of my trouble…

Giants manager Bruce Bochy announced earlier this evening that left-hander Barry Zito will start Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night against the Tigers. And now we can fill in most of the other slots. According to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle, left-hander Madison Bumgarner will be the starter in Game…

UPDATE: It’s official, Zito will start Game 1. ========== There’s no official word yet on the Giants’ rotation for the World Series, but Andrew Baggarly of CSNBayArea.com reports that Barry Zito is likely to get the call for Game 1 against the Tigers. He’d face Justin Verlander in a matchup of former Cy Young winners…

San Francisco won six more games than Detroit during the regular season, but the Tigers are sizable favorites over the Giants in the World Series. Bovada has Detroit as -180 favorites, which means you’d have to risk $180 to win $100 on the Tigers and means they’d have to win the series 65 percent of…

With plenty of time to set things up, the Tigers have already announced their rotation for the World Series (Justin Verlander, Doug Fister, Anibal Sanchez and then Max Scherzer). The Giants have some decisions to make. Here’s one guess at how it could go: Game 1: Wednesday – Barry Zito – four days’ rest Game…

Giants 6, Cardinals 1: And we head to Game 7, as the Giants continue to only really want to turn it on this post season once they’re facing elimination. And of course as everyone predicted it happened thanks to a great Ryan Vogelsong start which followed a great Barry Zito start which all came while…

With their backs against the wall, the Giants have been unstoppable this month, winning five straight elimination games against the Reds and Cardinals. It’s an impressive streak, no doubt. The Cardinals would likely be the first to admit it. After all, they’re riding a streak of six straight wins in elimination games themselves. Now one…

Here’s video of Barry Zito, Bruce Bochy and Mike Matheny discussing the Giants’ 5-0 win in Game 5 of the NLCS last night. After a gem of a start, I guess Zito can get away with wearing that fedora. Zito’s excellent and unexpected pitching performance has naturally received most of the attention, but don’t forget…

The Cardinals were hoping to clinch their second consecutive National League pennant last night, but vintage Barry Zito showed up to ruin the party. While they still hold a 3-2 lead in the NLCS, the series will now shift to San Francisco for Game 6 on Sunday night. Let’s take a quick look at the…

10 years after winning a Cy Young Award for the A’s, six years after signing one of the worst contracts in major league history and two years after being left off the postseason roster for the World Series champions, Barry Zito finally came up big for the Giants on Friday. With his team on the…